Ryan Lake Promoted to Director of First Beverage Group

First Beverage Group:

Los Angeles, CA – March 2, 2015. First Beverage Group is pleased to announce the promotion of Ryan Lake to the position of Director. Lake, formerly a Vice President, has been with the company since 2010.

As part of the company’s investment banking group, First Beverage Financial, Lake focuses on mergers and acquisitions for craft beer, spirits and non-alcoholic beverage transactions. While at First Beverage, he has been involved in nearly $1 billion of closed M&A transactions.

Prior to joining First Beverage, Lake spent nearly a decade with GE Capital in various positions in sales and underwriting and gained over six years of direct experience in beverage lending. At the time of his departure from GE, he had earned the title of Associate Vice President of Beverage Finance and Structured Risk and had funded, approved or reviewed over $2 billion of loans. He is a cum laude graduate of Arizona State University with a BS in Finance. He and his wife live in Phoenix with their son and daughter.

“Over his years at First Beverage, Ryan has grown into a very successful investment banker on many levels,” said William Anderson, Founder and CEO of First Beverage. “He has demonstrated exceptional business development and execution skills and is an integral member of our team. First Beverage would not be the same without his financial expertise and his extensive knowledge of the beverage industry.”

“Ryan has been instrumental in securing several of our firm’s recent successful craft beer investment banking assignments,” added Townsend Ziebold, Managing Partner of First Beverage. “We’re very happy to be a part of this next phase of his career.”